Verstappen to miss opener.

To the disappointment of his many fans, Jos Verstappen is to miss the opening round of the A1GP season at Zandvoort.

To the disappointment of his many fans, Jos Verstappen is to miss the opening round of the A1GP season at Zandvoort.

Verstappen will be replaced in the Team Netherlands car by Jeroen Bleekemolen after an apparent fall-out between Vertsappen's management and the team - with the former F1 racer's management requesting certain guarantees from both the team and A1GP following a delay in payments during the inaugural season of competition last year.

Despite the team working hard to resolve the situation and ensure that Verstappen would be in the car for the sold-out opening round of the season, a statement issued by the Dutch team said that 'the complete lack of appreciation and trust from the camp of [manager Huub] Rothengatter and Verstappen caused the break up'.

"I feel really bad about the situation, and it is awful for the fans of Jos, but we have to be straight here," team boss Jan Lammers said. "This is also Jos and, if you are a fan of Jos, you also have to be a fan of Huub Rothengatter. Last year, I was the first one to call Jos to get him into the car and we all benefited from that. But we also need enthusiasm and passion, now it's too much and only about the money.

"Our focus for this moment is on trying to achieve the maximum performance in front of a big crowd. We still want to put up a great show as A1 Team Netherlands. That's the difficult task that our reserve driver Jeroen Bleekemolen is facing right now, but we have a lot of faith in Jeroen's capacities.